given in parenthesis are the names of the minerals found naturally on Earth. The

experimental data found in the literature is from measurements on synthetically produced

solids, but the data is often used to represent the natural mineral as well.

In order to test the two-parameter EOSs against each other, the standard deviations for

the parameters were needed. The standard deviation was found through bootstrapping

and maximum likelihood, i.e. two dierent statistical methods. These two methods gave

comparable results for the standard deviation of the parameters (±5 − 65%) except for MgO, which was found to reject the null hypothesis of normal distribution based on a

2-test. Thus, the optimal parameters were reported using the bootstrap method, which is

distribution independent. The optimal parameters obtained, including their uncertainties, were then used to test which of the two-parameter EOSs give the best fit to experimental data.

Based on the analysis completed in this study, all the EOSs tested, except the first order Murnaghan were close to the standard deviation for all the dierent solids investigated at high pressure. Thus, a general conclusion on which EOS that gave the best fit for all the solids examined could not be drawn. Nevertheless, the pseudo-spinodal EOS has some promising features when it comes to high temperature and high pressure predictions, and was therefore used to model the complete pressure-volume-temperature surface. Predictions of the heat capacities, thermal expansion and the isothermal bulk modulus at high pressure and temperature for NaCl and MgO were done based on the pseudospinodal EOS. The thermal expansion and the complete pressure-volume-temperature surface predicted were also compared with available experimental data. The predictions give good fit to the data. However, from this analysis it may seem that the pseudo-spinodal EOS gives better fit for alkali halides than for oxides due to the dierence in thermal dependency of the Grüneisen parameter for these two substance groups. For alkali halides,e.g. NaCl, the Grüneisen parameter generally decreases with temperature. For oxides on the other hand, e.g. MgO, the Grüneisen parameter increases with temperature. This opposite temperature effect on the Grüneisen parameter for oxides and alkali halides has implications on the model predictions within the framework of the pseudo-spinodal EOS.

The major finding in this report was that an inconsistency in the pseudo-spinodal EOS was found at high pressure. This EOS predicts negative heat capacity at very high pressures and low temperatures. It is recommended in further work to search for a consistent way of including internal energy. This will provide an EOS of great value in the prediction of high pressure and high temperature effects on solids.